


Modern Family

by sanctuary_for_all



Series: Partners [53]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Charlie isn't Danny's kid in this universe, Established Relationship, Family, Fluff, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2019-01-23 02:53:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12496992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctuary_for_all/pseuds/sanctuary_for_all
Summary: "I'm Grace's brother, and Brandon's brother-once-removed. That makes me part of the ohana."A day at the beach.





	Modern Family

**Author's Note:**

> The big thing you need to know is that Charlie isn’t Danny’s kid in this universe. This happened mostly because I was well into “Homeward Bound” (the fic where they get Brandon) before the show did their Charlie reveal, and it seemed weird to throw a third kid into the mix. 
> 
> Honestly, though, I like it better this way. Having Rachel keep the news about Charlie’s parentage from Danny transformed her from a complicated woman who wasn’t right for Danny into someone I couldn’t forgive (keeping Danny from his children is quite literally the cruelest thing you could do to him, and she of all people KNEW that). Two, the entire thing makes me feel a deep swell of pity for Stan, which is way more mental energy than I have any desire to invest in the man. Three, it made Danny very sad, and I absolutely hate when Danny is sad. 
> 
> Given his change in parentage, Charlie is 100 percent not blond in this universe (which, honestly, was a ridiculous thing to do even in the show. Are you seriously telling me that Stan and Danny never looked at the blond little boy, at the two dark haired people who were his supposed bio parents, at the blond ex-husband, and went “Wait a minute…”?)

When he was younger, Danny had worried about hitting his 40s the same way he worried about everything else in life. He'd run through all the worst-case scenarios as each option seemed to loom most likely – trapped in a bitter marriage, creepy divorced guy reduced to an endless cycle of bar pickups and online dating disasters, Grace not speaking to him anymore, screwing up _another_ marriage because he was incapable of being a good husband, dead of a heart attack because of all the stress in his life, standing in front of Steve's grave yelling at him because if he starts crying he'll never stop....

In reality, though, it turned out that he would spend at least part of it sitting on a beach with two little dark-haired boys, one of whom was very definitely not his kid, discussing the requirements for The Greatest Sandcastle of all Time.

"It's gotta have a big wall," Brandon explained, his adorable little five-year-old face pinched with concentration as he slowly built his little wedge of wet sand into the aforementioned wall. "If it has a moat, and a big wall with little places for all the soldiers to stand, no one can get in and hurt the people inside."

Danny's chest tightened, thinking about how long it took for some emotional scars to heal. Brandon had seen how bad the world could get before he'd seen anything else, and even years of being loved couldn't wash away the memory of that. "Want me to start working on the moat?"

Brandon nodded. "We'll put sharks in there once it's done."

Charlie Edwards, whose nose had grown out of its similarity to Danny's several years ago and now looked surprisingly like a shrunk-down version of Stan, shook his head as he packed more wet sand into one of the buckets. "You shouldn't start making the wall until you've finished making the castle inside it," he explained, though Danny noticed the kid was careful not to disturb the partially built wall as he dumped the bucket on top of the half-tower already there. "And if it doesn't have big towers, it's not a real castle."

"You only have one tower," Brandon countered. "That's a skyscraper, not a castle."

"If you'd _help_ me," Charlie snapped, "then we'd have more towers."

Brandon shrugged. "Help us finish the wall, then me and Danno will help you make more towers." He stopped suddenly, looking over at Danny. "Or should we wait for Daddy to finish the wall? He's really good at defense."

Danny shook his head. "If we let your father design this, we'll be here all week. We'll just let him make some driftwood cannons or something."

Brandon grinned. "He can maybe make them shoot, too."

Danny grinned back. "Okay, no driftwood cannons." He turned to Charlie. "You're doing a good job on the towers all on your own, kid. I bet you'll get 'em all done even before Brandon and I finish the wall."

Charlie gave him a suspicious look. "Is this that reversible psychology stuff?"

"No, it's playing to your ego," Danny said easily, taking a quick picture of both boys. His past self, who had sent Stan a picture of a just-born Charlie, would have never imagined being so okay with a moment like this. He supposed happiness did that to you.

Charlie considered Danny's comment a moment, then nodded. "That's okay, then."

They'd all gone back to work just as an older woman in a sunhat and flowered sarong stopped by on her way to wherever she was going. "Oh, isn't this _precious_ ," she said, her Southern accent weirdly out of place as she laid a hand against her chest. "A father spending quality time with his sons."

The sentence was innocuous enough that it took a second for that extra "s" to sink in. Danny froze, brain floundering for the proper terminology to emphatically disavow a child without offending the kid, but thankfully the boys did it for him.

Brandon peered up at the woman. "He's my dad, not Charlie's. Charlie's dad's in Las Vegas right now."

Charlie nodded. "And Mom had to work, which meant that Grace let me borrow her other family for the day."

Danny shot him an amused look. "You know we had to agree to it, too, right?"

Charlie shrugged, completely unconcerned. "Grace says you guys consider people who aren't even related to you family. I'm Grace's brother, and Brandon's brother-once-removed. That makes me part of the ohana."

Danny considered this, then nodded. "Fair enough."

The woman – who was still there for some reason – was watching all this with a deeply confused look. "Brother-once-removed?"

Brandon nodded. "Charlie and I share Grace, but we have different parents. Danno is my dad and Grace's dad, and Charlie's mom is his mom and Grace's mom. But me and Grace have my other Dad, whose name is Steve, and Charlie and Grace have Step-Stan. My mom went to heaven when I was little."

"So I have fewer parents than they do," Charlie added. "I might get more if Mom and Dad marry other people, though." He stopped, giving Danny a questioning look. "Wait – Grace doesn't really see Dad much anymore. Is he still her parent? Or will she get a new other dad if Mom gets married again?"

That... was not a question he was prepared to weigh in on. "I think you're going to have to ask your mother that." He turned to the woman. "Sorry. Weird family situation."

Charlie gave him a narrow-eyed look that suddenly reminded him alarmingly of Rachel. "Not _that_ weird."

The woman kind of looked like she'd been hit over the head, but she waved away the apology. "I asked."

After she left, Charlie moved closer to the shoreline to get more water for his bucket.

Once he was a little ways away, Brandon stopped working on the wall long enough to hug his arm. "Thank you for sticking with Daddy," he murmured, low enough for Charlie not to overhear. "I don't want any more parents."

Chest tightening, Danny kissed the top of his head. "No worries, Tracker," he murmured. "Neither of us are going anywhere."

When Brandon went back to playing, Danny looked over at Charlie and thought about what a disaster that would have been. Not that he wasn't a perfectly nice kid, but if Rachel hadn't called and said the baby wasn't his he might have tried harder to reconcile. He'd do a hell of a lot for his kids, and the idea of being a family again had been intoxicating. It wouldn't have worked long-term, he was sure, but it would have been long enough to make sure there was plenty more shrapnel all around. He would have had another child Rachel could take away from him.

And if it _had_ somehow worked out...

Danny looked past Charlie to see Steve and Grace emerge from the water with what looked like a bag full of shells. Steve waved at Brandon, who happily waved back, then met Danny's eyes with that little-boy grin he was so damn fond of.

If it had worked out with Rachel, if he'd stayed out of some desperate desire to hold on to his children, he would have missed out on the love of his life. And that would have been _hell_.

The three of them headed back over to the partially finished castle, setting the shells down next to them. "Decorations for when it's done," Grace announced, sitting down cross-legged between her brothers. "Where do you want me?"

"Charlie need help with the towers," Brandon said. "Because Danno's already helping me with the wall."

"What about me?" Steve asked, sitting down on Danny's other side.

"Brandon and Danny were talking about driftwood cannons," Charlie said. "Those sounded cool."

Steve looked amused. "I'm pretty sure the Mythbusters proved that was impossible."

Danny raised an eyebrow at him, fighting a smile. "And here I thought you could weaponize anything."

Steve waggled his eyebrows. "Well, if I'm being challenged...."

Charlie sighed dramatically, looking over at Grace and Brandon. "Your parents are flirting again."

Grace just grinned at Danny, ruffling Charlie's hair. "They tend to do that."

**Author's Note:**

> Come check out my [original fiction,](https://jennifferwardell.wixsite.com/mybooks) my [blog,](http://jennifferwardell.blogspot.com) or say hi to me on [Tumblr](http://sanctuaryforalluniverses.tumblr.com)!


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